Skip to main content

Red Herring

A red herring is irrelevant information used in a debate or argument to confuse the issue at hand. A red herring could be a response that doesn’t address the original issue, instead diverting the
argument onto another topic. For example, a driver who was speeding might argue that he or she shouldn’t get a ticket because there are worse crimes being committed that should occupy the police.
The argument is a red herring, a classic logical fallacy – the fact that worse crimes occur isn’t relevant to the fact that the driver was speeding.